Strana 35
We also ew the MiG-21F to the Baltic Sea for shooting prac-
tice. We ew with 490-liter tanks. It was about a 40-minute
ight, then we turned around and ew back around Berlin,
where we began our descent. From Berlin, it didn’t consume
much fuel—about 300-400 liters. It consumed almost nothing.
You were nervous when you had 1,200 liters of fuel, but from
an altitude of 8,000 meters, it was fun to glide.
MiG-21Fs served with us in Líně on standby until about 1986
or 1988 or so. Then there were only MiG-21MFs. Until then,
MiG-21Fs served in all conditions. Two Fs and two MFs were on
standby. Depending on the needs of the command post, they
took o with or without a locator.
In September 1975 at the reserve airport in Hořovice, I was
forced to land a MiG-21F without an engine for the rst time.
We had practiced this procedure. This was preceded by the fact
that when I went to y in Kbely, my colleague Emil Přádný, who
was already working in research, and I discussed various op-
tions for troubleshooting. He graduated from Pardubice Airport
at a time when Mikoyan pilot Alexander Fedotov was visiting.
Emil asked him about all possible options and ways of dealing
with faults on that type of aircraft. Among other things, he
asked about landing with a non-functioning engine. Fedotov
asked him how long the runway at Pardubice was. Emil said
2.5 km, and Fedotov conrmed that landing was possible on
such a runway. This was also addressed in the ight instruc-
tions for the MiG-21. So we discussed it with my colleague, test
pilot Franta Včelák, who was testing the POL-4 systém in Líně,
and we started doing some practice runs here and there. When
I was ying him or he was ying me, we would try it out at the
end to see if it worked or not. Above the threshold of runway
5,000 or 5,500 m, we reduced throttle, extended the air brakes,
and turned 40-45° at a speed of 450 km/h, observing how the
aircraft behaved. The vertical descent rate was around 30 m/s.
After turning back to the axis, we found that it was possible
to adjust the calculation to touchdown by adjusting the land-
ing gear extension point. When we were long, we lowered the
landing gear earlier, and when it looked like we were going to
be short, we waited, and at 1,200 m we already knew whether
we would make it to the runway landing point or not. We went
full throttle, retracted the landing gear, entered the third turn,
and then landed normally. On the ground, we discussed wheth-
er it would work out or not.
Well, I was lucky or unlucky that during a ight on the test
route between Vodňany and Podhořany on MiG-21F 0611, af-
ter reaching the altitude specied in the ight program, there
was an acceleration test at an altitude of 12,000 m, already
in subsonic ight. And after I put the throttle to maximum,
the engine stalled. I told myself, no problem, I’ll descend to
10,000 and restart the engine. I tried, but nothing happened,
so I continued to descend. My colleague Franta Včelák gave
me the order to go to Brdy and eject. I conrmed this to him,
but by then I could already see Hořovice Airport ahead of
me. And the descent was working out for a landing from the
west. And it was still working, so at about 1,200 m, I made
an emergency landing gear deployment to save pressure in
the hydraulics. The engine speed dropped from 55-60% to
35-40%, but it was enough to recharge the hydraulic accu-
mulators. This prevented the pressure on the aileron and
stabilizer controls from dropping. It seemed to me that I had
too much altitude, so I reduced my speed with quick, gentle
tilts. It still worked, even with an unusually fast descent of
40 m/s. From 200-250 m, it was a ght for my life. I realized
that the minimum altitude for ejection was 500 m. But it
worked, and so I landed at a higher speed, about 380 km/h,
with the plane overloaded and bouncing, about 80 m beyond
the runway threshold. The brake parachute broke o. Its re-
lease was limited to a speed of 260 km/h, but the brakes
were ne and I ended up on the other side of the airport.
A man then brought me the torn parachute. What surprised
me was that the police were there within 10 minutes. About
45 minutes later, a helicopter arrived with Col. Diblík, the divi-
sion commander. The rst thing he wanted to know was how
much fuel I had left. I still had about 600 liters. He didn’t say
anything. I think I managed it only because of good training
and going over all possible and impossible scenarios. The fault
was in the broken accelerator regulator on the pump.
In the second case of an emergency landing without an en-
gine, the fault was a disconnection of the compressor from
the turbine. It spun over, and I was very lucky that it did not
break apart due to centrifugal force. The blades lengthened
by 7 mm and ground along the circumference. The plane vi-
brated slightly. The engine speed was similar to the previous
landing, so the hydraulic pressure was maintained again. If it
had dropped to zero, there would have been no choice but to
eject. Likewise, the generator was still supplying electrical
power. Major Beneš, as ight controller, gave me the order to
eject in Brdy. I extended the wheels again by air in an emer-
gency to conserve as much hydraulic pressure as possible.
I did not extend the aps. Both tires burst on landing, and
I ended up in the grass halfway across the aireld. But the
1002 aircraft ew again.
MiG-21FR, c/n 061002, 3 Flight,
5 Fighter Air Regiment, Plzeň-Líně AB,
Czechoslovakia, 1972-1987
INFO Eduard
35
September 2025